Grammar Planet 3 TG - WJ Compass
Transcript of Grammar Planet 3 TG - WJ Compass
Unit 1 Pronouns
These are my friends.
Pronouns represent nouns—that is, people, places, things, etc. But there are also special kinds of
pronouns that give more information, such as who something belongs to or how far away something is.
Subject pronouns (I / we / you / he / she / it / they) take the place of a noun (person, place, thing, etc.)
in a sentence. We use them after we have already talked about a noun once. Then, we don’t have to say
the same thing many times.
Example: James is going home early today. He isn’t feeling well.
Possessive adjectives (my / your / her / his / its / our / their) are used like adjectives in front of nouns.
They show who or what something belongs to.
Example: Linda is at the hospital. She is visiting her grandmother. (her = Linda’s)
Note that possessive adjectives are not the same as possessive pronouns (mine / ours / yours / his / hers
/ theirs). These represent a possessive adjective + a noun, and so they do not appear in front of nouns.
[Possessive pronouns are not covered in this unit.]
Example: This is my bike, and that is hers.
Demonstrative pronouns are pronouns which show both how many and how close or far something is
from the speaker, as follows.
‘this’ = one thing, close ‘these’ = two or more things, close
‘that’ = one thing, far ‘those’ = two or more things, far
Example: This is my bike, and that is hers.
Unit 2 Simple Present
They do not work.
Simple present tense is used to talk about things that are generally true and are not likely to change
soon.
Example: I live in Canada. (I am not going to move soon.)
In simple present tense, the verb changes its form according to the subject. In the case of a third person
singular subject (She / He / It), ‐s / ‐es is added to the end of the verb.
Example: I work at a bank, and my brother works at a hospital.
There are some rules for forming third‐person verbs in the simple present.
(1) Most verbs (speak) add ‐s (He speaks quickly.)
(2) Verbs ending in ‐y (cry) change ‐y to ‐ies (She cries all the time.)
(3) Verbs ending in ‐y with a vowel before the y (play) add ‐s (He plays soccer on Saturdays.)
(4) Verbs ending in ‐ss, ‐x, ‐sh, ‐ch (fix) add ‐es (She fixes TVs.)
(5) Irregular verbs (go, do, have) (goes, does, has)
In yes / no questions, put Do and Does in front of the subject. Notice that the main verb doesn’t change.
Example: Do you like it? Does he like it?
Answer yes / no questions with do / don’t or does / doesn’t depending on the subject.
Example: Yes, I do. No, he doesn’t.
Unit 3 Simple Present: The Verb Be
She is a dancer.
In the present tense, be verb is changed to am, are, or is according to the subject, as follows.
I am Example: I am a student.
you, we, they are Example: You are good.
he, she, it is Example: They are students.
The be verb can be followed by a noun, an adjective, etc.
Example: She is a student. She is smart.
To make a sentence negative, put not after the be verb. Notice that we can use an apostrophe in two
different ways, but not with “I am not”.
I am not a dancer. I’m not a dancer. X I amn’t a dancer.
She is not a dancer. She’s not a dancer. She isn’t a dancer.
They are not dancers. They’re not dancers. They aren’t dancers.
To form a yes / no question, move the be verb to in front of the subject.
Example: Are you a student? / Is she a student?
Answer this kind of yes / no question with yes or no, followed by the subject and be verb (+ not). Notice
that we can use apostrophes. We cannot use apostrophes with positive answers, though.
Example: Yes, I am. No, I’m not. / Yes, she is. No, she isn’t.
Unit 4 Present Continuous
She is cooking.
We use the present continuous tense to talk about what is happening now or around now. The form is
be + V + ‐ing. Depending on the subject, the be verb is am, are, and is. The main verb always ends in ‐ing.
Example: I am studying. / He is speaking. (These things are happening right now.)
To make present continuous sentences negative, put not after the be verb. Notice that we can use
apostrophes.
Example: I am not studying. / He isn’t speaking.
In yes / no questions in present continuous, the be verb is in front of the subject. The rest of the verb
(the ‐ing part) stays after the subject.
Example: Are you studying? / Is he speaking?
In information questions (Wh‐ questions), the wh‐ question word and the be verb are in front of the
subject. The rest of the verb (the ‐ing part) stays after the subject.
Example: What are you studying?
Unit 5 Future: Affirmative and Negative
Holly will not swim.
There are different ways of talking about the future in English. One way is to use will in front of the verb.
Example: We will study.
(Generally, we use will to talk about what we think is probably happening the future. If we know
something will happen in the future, we normally use be going to or present continuous. This is not
covered in this lesson.)
Notice that the verb does not change depending on the subject.
Example: I will study. / He will study.
To make a negative statement, put not between will and the verb. Notice that we can use an
apostrophe.
Example: I will not study. / I won’t study. (X I’ll not study.)
Unit 6 Future: Yes / No Questions
Will you come?
In yes / no questions in future tense, will comes in front of the subject.
Example: Will we buy a cake?
Notice that will does not change depending on the subject. Neither does the main verb.
Example: Will he buy a cake?
Answer this kind of question with yes or no followed by will or will not / won’t. Be careful with
apostrophes.
Example: Yes, he will. (X Yes, he’ll.) / No, he will not. / No, he won’t.
Unit 7 Simple Past: The Verb Be
They were new.
We use simple past to talk about things that happened before, in a period that is now over. In this
lesson, we will focus on using be verb in simple past tense.
In simple past, be verb takes two forms, was or were, depending on the subject, as follows.
I, he, she, it was Example: He was late.
you, we, they were Example: They were early.
To make these kinds of simple past sentences negative, put not after was or were. Notice we can use
apostrophes.
Example: He was not late. / He wasn’t late. (X He’s not late.)
Example: They were not late. / They weren’t late. (X They’re not late.)
Answer simple past yes / no questions with be verb with yes or no, and was / wasn’t or were / weren’t,
depending on the subject.
Example: Was he strong? / Yes, he was. No, he wasn’t.
Were they strong? / Yes, they were. / No, they weren’t.
Unit 8 Simple Past: Regular Verbs
We played music.
We make simple past sentences with many verbs by adding ‐ed to the end of the verb. Simple past tense
is often used with past time expressions (ex., yesterday, last night, three weeks ago).
Example: We colored pictures yesterday.
But there are other ways of making simple past tense verbs, depending on the spelling of the verb.
(1) verbs ending in ‐y (carry) replace y with ‐ied (Example: He carried the boxes.)
(2) verbs ending in ‐y with a vowel before the y (play) just add ‐ed (Example: We played soccer.)
(3) verbs ending in ‐e (dance) just add ‐d (Example: We danced for a long time.)
Notice that there are many irregular verbs that do not follow these rules. (These are not covered in this
lesson.)
Example: We swam in the lake. / She ran all the way home.
To make a negative sentence in past tense, put did not between the subject and the verb. Notice that in
negative sentences, the verb is in base form. We can use apostrophes.
Example: We did not color pictures. / We didn’t color pictures. (X We’d not color pictures.)
Unit 9 Simple Past: Irregular Verbs
I went home.
There are some verbs that do not form the simple past tense by changing their form to end in ‐ed, ‐d, or
‐ied but change into a somewhat different form—these are the irregular verbs.
Example: X I goed home. I went home.
Unfortunately, there are no easy patterns to the forms irregular verbs take in the simple past. These
must be memorized. (See the chart below.)
Forming negative sentences in the simple past with irregular verbs is the same as for regular verbs; just
put did not (didn’t) between the subject and the base form of the main verb. Notice that the main verb
does not change its form.
Example: I went home. I didn’t go home.
She forgot my birthday. She didn’t forget my birthday.
Unit 10 Simple Past: Questions
Did you cook?
Yes/no questions in the past tense have the form Did + subject + base form of main verb. Notice that
the main verb does not end in ‐d, ‐ed, or ‐ied.
Example: Did you cook? Did they eat?
Answer such questions with yes or no followed by subject + did / didn’t.
Example: Yes, I did. No, they didn’t.
Information questions (wh‐ questions) in the past tense have the form Wh‐ + did + subject + base form
of main verb. Answer them with a statement in simple past tense. (See Units 8 & 9.)
Example: Q: What did you do?
A: I studied English.
Unit 11 Adjectives
She is a cute cat.
Adjectives give more information to describe nouns. They answer the question “What kind?”
Example: man strong / tall / handsome / short / old
Adjectives can occur in front of the nouns they describe. The singular form is a + adjective + noun, and
the plural form is adjective + plural noun.
Example: He is a strong man.
They are cute cats.
Adjectives can also occur behind linking verbs (ex., be, become, look, seem, smell, taste, etc.). This lesson
focuses on the linking verb be.
Example: The man is strong.
The cats are cute.
A list of common adjectives paired as antonyms follows.
Unit 12 Adverbs
He walks slowly.
Adverbs are words that modify an adjective, verb, or other adverb, and they usually go after the
verb.
Adverbs often end in ‘-ly’ when they modify adjectives. However, if their adjective counterpart ends
with ‘y,’ the ‘y’ is changed into an ‘i’ and we add ‘-ly’ to the ending. There are also irregular adverbs
that look completely different than their adjective form, such as well. Other irregular adverbs look
exactly the same as their adjective form such as fast.
I study hard.
You play the piano well.
Kim speaks to him nicely.
Cam sings happily.
Unit 13 Comparatives
It is better than that.
Comparatives are used to compare two things. We can compare with adjectives (ex., larger), adverbs
(ex., more beautifully), and nouns (ex., more toys). This unit focuses on comparative adjectives. The form
is subject + verb + adjective comparison + than + comparison object.
Example: This one is larger than that one.
Generally, there are two forms of comparative adjectives. Short adjectives (those with only one or two
syllables) form comparatives by adding ‐er. If they end in a y, we remove the y and add ‐ier.
Example: small smaller, pretty prettier
Longer adjectives (those that have three or more syllables) form comparatives by adding more in front.
Notice that these comparative adjectives do not end in er.
Example: expensive more expensive, X more expensiver
There are some other short adjectives that form comparatives with more. These are adjectives that end
in ‐ful, ‐less, ‐ive, or ‐ous'.
Example: awful more awful, X awfuler
There are a few adjectives (especially good and bad) that form comparatives with irregular forms.
Example: good better, bad worse
Unit 14 Superlatives
It is the tallest animal.
We use superlative adjectives to show which is the greatest among three or more things.
Example: John is tall. Paul is taller. Richard is the tallest. (He is taller than both John and Paul.)
Superlatives are formed in two ways, just like comparative adjectives. (See Unit 13.) Short adjectives
(those with only one or two syllables) form superlatives by adding the ‐est. If they end in a y, we remove
the y and add the ‐iest.
Example: small the smallest, pretty the prettiest
Longer adjectives (those that have three or more syllables) form superlatives by adding the most in
front. Notice that these comparative adjectives do not end in est.
Example: expensive the most expensive, X the most expensivest
There are some other short adjectives that form superlatives with the most. These are adjectives that
end in ‐ful, ‐less, ‐ive, or ‐ous'.
Example: awful the most awful, X the awfulest
There are a few adjectives (especially good and bad) that form superlatives with irregular forms.
Example: good the best, bad the worst
Unit 15 Information Questions and Prepositions of Time
What day is it?
Questions asking about time almost always start with When or What day/time/etc.
Example: When is the meeting? / What time is the movie?
To answer these kinds of questions or make statements about time, use the time preposition at, in, or
on.
The preposition at is used with specific times of day (or with words like noon, midnight, etc.).
Example: The meeting is at 5 o’clock. The movie is at 3:35 PM.
The preposition on is used with days of the week or dates (or with the names of holidays like
Thanksgiving, etc.).
Example: The meeting is on Tuesday. The party is on July 2nd.
The preposition in is used with years (ex., 1971), months (ex., March), seasons (ex., summer), or periods
of the day (ex., the morning, the afternoon, the evening). (But we say, “at night”.)
Example: I was born in 1985.
Unit 16 Modal Verbs
May I sit?
Modal verbs occur in front of the main verb and change the meaning in different ways.
The modal can expresses ability—it shows that the subject is able to do the action described. We can
make a negative sentence with can to show that the subject is not able to do the action. To do this, we
put not between can and the main verb. The two words are often combined. Notice that we can use
apostrophes.
Example: I can swim. (I took swimming lessons for many years.)
My sister can not (cannot) swim. My sister can’t swim.
The modals can and may express permission—they show that someone is letting the subject do
something. Notice we don’t use apostrophes with may.
Example: You can have another piece of cake. But she can’t.
You may not go to the park. X You mayn’t go to the park.
The modal should is used for giving advice. It means that the action is a good idea or is recommended.
Example: He should go to bed early. / You shouldn’t eat too much cake.
To make yes/no questions with modals, put the modal in front of the subject. Answer them with yes or
no and modal (+ not). Notice that we can use apostrophes.
Example: Q: Can I borrow your pen?
A: Yes, you can.
Q: Should he do it again?
A: No, he shouldn’t.